Small businesses are being celebrated this week in Canada.

Small business week was launched in 1981 and now over 10,000 people take part in networking and socializing events across the nation.

The Scotiabank branch in Humboldt celebrated on Wednesday with a come and go event for their clients as well as other business owners and residents.

Humboldt and District Chamber of Commerce President Andre Kruger says small businesses drive our economy.

"It's very important I think for the small businesses in Humboldt and the region, it shows we have a healthy vibrant economy going. Just listening and talking to people coming into the Chamber, it appears there one to two businesses a week starting up."

The idea of celebrating small business originated in British Columbia in 1979 and two years after that the third week in October every year would be marked as a way to celebrate their importance.

Small Business Adviser at the Humboldt Scotiabank is Patti Durand; she says Humboldt continues to flourish with smaller companies.

"To have a community of our size and our region having that many businesses starting up it says a lot about the entrepreneurial nature of our community, it says a lot about the diversity about what's being offered and why people are continuing to be drawn here."

The Humboldt and District Chamber of Commerce passed the 200 member mark four years ago, they now have 258 members.

"It is great news," Kruger added. "Sometime down the line they are going to want to employ an office staff or move into an office and that's another position that opens up in Humboldt or the region, all of this is really good."

You can hear more from both Durand and Kruger in their interviews with Bolt FM's Clark Stork below.